Systemic therapy for cardiac sarcomas.

Authors:
  • RBRobert S. Benjamin
    Robert S. Benjamin
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Abstract
Cardiac sarcomas create 2 risks: local problems and metastatic disease. Most frequently, the histologies are angiosarcoma and high-grade pleomorphic unclassified sarcoma (formerly called MFH or malignant fibrous histiocytoma). There is also a clinical-pathological entity without distinctive histological features of tumors that originate in the pulmonary artery and are referred to as pulmonary artery sarcomas or intimal sarcomas of the pulmonary artery. Conventional wisdom indicates that soft-tissue sarcomas are poorly responsive to chemotherapy. Luckily, that is not the case. Attempts to concentrate on the local problem only with therapies up to and including cardiac transplantation have been unsuccessful due to the high rate of fatal metastatic disease.